Supreme Court affirms dismissal of gov't employee for tickling co-worker's knee

The Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed the dismissal from the service of a government employee who had tickled the knee of his co-worker in an act the court found indecent and unprofessional.

In a Feb. 26 decision made public this week, the SC's Second Division reinstated a Civil Service Commission (CSC) decision dismissing a close-in cameraman of the Presidential Broadcast Staff-Radio TV Malacanang (PBS-RTVM), forfeiting his retirement benefits, and disqualifying him from reemployment in the government. 

The case started as an administrative complaint filed by a female employee against the cameraman for sexual harassment or grave misconduct in 2013.

The female employee alleged that some six months prior, the cameraman sat beside her in the office while she was watching a noontime show and tickled her right knee and "held her" despite her protests, causing her to hit her elbow on a cabinet when she freed herself.

She said the incident made her cry and claimed that the cameraman taunted her afterwards instead of apologizing.

The cameraman admitted he touched his co-worker's knee but claimed it was a joke and without malice. He also claimed it was not an act related to his work functions.

The Presidential Communications Operations Office found him guilty of simple misconduct. As this had been his second offense, he was meted the penalty of dismissal from service. He appealed before the CSC but also lost even after the case was remanded to PBS-RTVM for a formal investigation.

Appealing again, the cameraman went to the Court of Appeals (CA), which in 2017 reduced the penalty from dismissal to a six-month suspension without pay and benefits. Though the CA was unconvinced he was innocent, it took into account the "triviality" of the offense and his decades-long government service.

Ruling now on the government's appeal, the SC took the cameraman's length of service against him, saying his seniority "should have impelled him to set a good example to his co-employees and other civil servants instead of flagrantly and shamelessly violating the law and undermining the professionalism and integrity required from public servants."

The court also noted that this was his second offense and that the corresponding penalty under the Civil Service Law is dismissal from the service.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Henri Jean Paul Inting, the SC said the cameraman's act of touching his co-worker's knee, though it may have been a joke to him, "was clearly unsolicited and uncalled for" and was something he "does not have any right" to do.

"Even if the act was done without malice, it is beyond all bounds of decency and decorum for a person to touch any body part of another without consent for that matter," the SC said.

The court said the cameraman through this act showed his "moral depravity and lack of respect towards female co-employees" and his "unprofessionalism in his interactions with his colleagues."

The SC said he violated the "yardstick of public service" under the Constitution, which states the state policy of "promoting a high standard of ethics and utmost responsibility in the public service."

Saying the decision is not to prohibit "light-hearted banter," the SC acknowledged that humor in the workplace may have positive effects on "work productivity, staff motivation, job satisfaction, group cohesion, commitment, and most importantly, stress reduction."

"However, unsolicited physical contact, even if done in jest, has no place in the workplace, especially in the government service," the SC said.

Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Andres Reyes, Jr. (now retired), Ramon Paul Hernando, and Edgardo delos Santos concurred with the decision penned by Inting.—AOL, GMA News